I have a total of three CDs left. There is no way in hell I’m selling them after holding them for 4+ years so far to take the penalty. The CDs are for 7 years. That would be completely counterproductive. As a result, I feel very stuck with ever getting my CD money back if I wanted to. If the CDs were for just 1 or 2 years, I agree, it doesn’t matter as much. But combine a 7 year term with 4%+ interest is too painful to give up.
2) Focus on income producing assets. Internet growth stocks may be sexy, but they provide no income. To build a large enough passive income stream to survive, you must invest in dividend generating stocks, certificates of deposit, municipal bonds, government treasury bonds, corporate bonds, and real estate. You’re free to invest in non-income producing assets for capital appreciation too. You just want to earn reliable income when the day comes to leave your job.
“[T]he stream of continuing payments that are earned by Brad and/or Karen from the commissions (current and future) earned by the brokers within a book of business. Residual income arises from all sources of income relating to or derived from an identified book of business, including commissions earned by the brokers within that identified book of business from any source whatsoever.”
Residual income can have two different definitions or applications. The first definition, a less common application of residual income, is the money that is left after monthly debts are paid. This calculation is particularly important when a person is seeking financing or a loan based on their income and available money to cover the additional debt. In this scenario, the residual income is calculated by this formula:

Of course, the total economy is much more complicated than the illustration above. An economy involves interactions between not only individuals and businesses, but also Federal, state, and local governments and residents of the rest of the world. Also not shown in this simple illustration of the economy are other aspects of economic activity such as investment in capital (produced—or fixed—assets such as structures, equipment, research and development, and software), flows of financial capital (such as stocks, bonds, and bank deposits), and the contributions of these flows to the accumulation of fixed assets.[4]

But I agree with you on the pain to manage. We had one tenant, my biggest learning experience that trashed the place. We sued him in small claims and won, then he appealed. In small claims, you can bring an attorney on appeal. He did and the amt owed was reduced. He had purchased a house so we put a lien on it. Then he filed bankruptcy, and we received a letter from his attorney telling us to take off the lien. We did. So we received nothing. Our corporate attorney at work was advising me along the way. I always remember what he said when it was all over. ‘Chalk this up as a lesson in jurisprudence”

Why did P2P lending get a liquidity ranking of 6? It is quite possibly the most illiquid investment option you listed. You said you rank liquidity by “difficulty level of withdrawing your money without a massive penalty”, and for Lending Club notes, it’s not only difficult and extremely time consuming to sell all of your notes in their super illiquid market, but you would have to sell your notes at large losses to hope to get others interested in buying your notes. On top of that, it is impossible to withdraw your money any other way other than just waiting for interest/principal to pay off every month until maturity in 3 to 5 years. You can’t just one day tell Lending Club “I want to quit, please give me my money back.” One can even argue that it is less difficult to sell a home (in order to “withdraw” the money invested) than to withdraw all of their money from a P2P loan portfolio because it is very possible to sell a home before 3 to 5 years.

You can uses tools such as Wordpress for your website platform. MailChimp to collect email addresses. Clickfunnels to create funnels and landing pages that are completely automated. Stripe to process payments. These are just a few tools I use but there are many more options for each part of your business. Find the ones that work for you and help you create systems. (Disclaimer: I was not paid to mention any of these companies).
Hey Alison! thanks for taking the time to check out the post! I specifically outlined the post so it would follow a specific structure. This is so readers know what to expect and it helps with the flow of the piece. I’ve actually just finished up a (shortened) PDF version of the post that includes a bonus idea not mentioned here. I’ll be adding this to the post shortly! You’re right on the ebook suggestion — could easily have been made into one. I noticed that you linked to it from the millionaire blog post, thank you so much. Kimberly and I really appreciate the mention.

During my first year as a financial advisor, I got a small base salary. After that, it was up to me to figure out how to find and retain new clients. Fortunately, I quickly learned how to market myself, meet new people, and set myself up for success. And over time, I made the connections I needed to grow my base of clients, earn a real income, and produce the type of results my clients wanted.

The information contained on this web site is the opinion of the individual authors based on their personal observation, research, and years of experience. The publisher and its authors are not registered investment advisers, attorneys, CPA’s or other financial service professionals and do not render legal, tax, accounting, investment advice or other professional services. The information offered by this web site is general education only. Because each individual’s factual situation is different the reader should seek his or her own personal adviser. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions and shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained on this site. Use at your own risk. Additionally, this website may receive financial compensation from the companies mentioned through advertising, affiliate programs or otherwise. Rates and offers from advertisers shown on this website change frequently, sometimes without notice. While we strive to maintain timely and accurate information, offer details may be out of date. Visitors should thus verify the terms of any such offers prior to participating in them. The author and its publisher disclaim responsibility for updating information and disclaim responsibility for third-party content, products, and services including when accessed through hyperlinks and/or advertisements on this site.

When most hear the term residual income, they think of excess cash or disposable income. Although that definition is correct in the scope of personal finance, in terms of equity valuation residual income is the income generated by a firm after accounting for the true cost of its capital. You might be asking, "but don't companies already account for their cost of capital in their interest expense?" Yes and no. Interest expense on the income statement only accounts for a firm's cost of its debt, ignoring its cost of equity, such as dividends payouts and other equity costs. Looking at the cost of equity another way, think of it as the shareholders' opportunity cost, or the required rate of return. The residual income model attempts to adjust a firm's future earnings estimates, to compensate for the equity cost and place a more accurate value to a firm. Although the return to equity holders is not a legal requirement like the return to bondholders, in order to attract investors firms must compensate them for the investment risk exposure.

Recognition of an identifiable intangible asset in the group accounts that was not previously recorded in the investee company balance sheet creates a distortion in valuation under a residual income model. The amortization of such intangible assets reduces the combined ROE, and hence results in lower valuation of the combined entity compared to the sum of the values of individual entities prior to acquisition. To remove this distortion, the amortization of intangibles capitalized doing acquisition should be removed prior to computing the ROE used for residual income valuation.

However, the RI-based approach is most appropriate when a firm is not paying dividends or exhibits an unpredictable dividend pattern, and / or when it has negative free cash flow many years out, but is expected to generate positive cash flow at some point in the future. Further, value is recognized earlier under the RI approach, since a large part of the stock's intrinsic value is recognized immediately – current book value per share – and residual income valuations are thus less sensitive to terminal value.[5]

But when so many turn down leasing one and one-half acre for one Wind Turbine for each 80 acres, that lease certainly does not materially affect the rest of the Farm or Ranch grazing pasture and the lease pays much more than the farm crow or grazing pasture lease, just because some lawyer said the lease was too long: 30 years plus 30 year option = 60 years, and the wind turbine company has selling production/electricity contracts for the next 150 years – which is needed to obtain financing!

Highly-paid professionals (like doctors) should definitely be looking into multiple streams of income. In fact, more than anyone, we are in the best position to accelerate our growth towards financial freedom. We’re able to earn the necessary capital and immediately throw that money into creating additional streams very quickly. We just have to be strategic about it. Keep your expenses in check, and be disciplined about moving your earned income from your day jobs and straight into the money-making machines. There is a balance to be had here. You just have to figure out exactly where it is for you.

To brief it to you without overwhelming you with information, what I do is source products from china in bulk (DIRT CHEAP) lets say I buy 200 units for the price of $1, and I send it to Amazon's fulfillment centers and I list those products for $15, I make a $10 Profit Per Unit I sell. I have a lot of days where I make $150 a day, I sometimes wake up in the morning with 50$ profit, etc. This is by far right now the best trend, I've searched a lot of different ways of making money, while most of them are bullshit, cash apps, etc. Affiliate Marketing works, but like I said before, you need traffic and that's rough to get for an average person.

However, the RI-based approach is most appropriate when a firm is not paying dividends or exhibits an unpredictable dividend pattern, and / or when it has negative free cash flow many years out, but is expected to generate positive cash flow at some point in the future. Further, value is recognized earlier under the RI approach, since a large part of the stock's intrinsic value is recognized immediately – current book value per share – and residual income valuations are thus less sensitive to terminal value.[5]
If you want to know what to do with your money, to be rich and financially secure, this is the most ccomprehensive book out there to walk you step by step to success. It's not about getting rich quick. It's about creating many baskets and collecting many eggs. As your income increases and debt is paid, you will realize how much fun it is to watch your money grow. It's even more fun than spending money. You have to start somewhere, might as well start with this book.
3. Rent - Being a landlord is fabulous. You get rent for the rest of your life on the asset that you have created. This type of income also can grow if your property is good, well maintained. The growing income is a hedge against inflation. If you can earn rent to pay for your living expenses every month, you can be very close to achieving financial freedom!
One of the easiest ways to increase your passive income is to shift your savings to a bank that pays a higher yield on your savings — for example, Discover Bank and EverBank pay almost 1% for your money. Although it doesn’t sound like much (especially in this low interest environment), little things do add up and eventually interest rates will rise.
Thanks for the great article…although I have to point out many of the items listed are not passive but active, such as selling bodily fluids, writing blogs or resumes, and collecting bottles and cans. To be truly passive, the income source must require no effort on your part (after initial setup). Real estate, dividends, P2P lending…these are truly passive income sources.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I wish there was a product that did this,” then invent it! Create a product, medical or otherwise, and sell it as a company or get royalties for it. It’s not impossible to figure out, I have many friends who have taken a concept to market. Don’t overlook an invention as a fantastic means of attaining passive income.
Unfortunately, it took a while for the real lessons to sink in. I was probably 20 or 21 when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad the first time, which means I wasn’t exactly sure who I was yet. I knew I wanted to work hard and make money, but I wasn’t sure how. This made me a prime candidate for multi-level marketing pitches, and the dream of “getting rich quick.”
The Lake Tahoe property continues to be 100% managed by a property management company. It feels amazing not to have to do anything. I can’t wait to bring up my boy this coming winter to play in the snow! I could go up this winter, but I want him to be able to walk and run comfortably before he goes. I’ve been dreaming of this moment for over 10 years now. The income from the property is highly dependent on how much it snows. Summer income is always very strong.
Fundrise – With a minimum investment of just $500, investors of all types can make crowd-funded real estate investments through Fundrise. This means you get the benefits of being a landlord without actually having to deal with owning or managing the properties yourself. Even though we own 2 rental properties, we recently began investing in Fundrise ourselves. We love it because there is no “accredited investor” requirement, making it far more accessible for the average person than the other two options below. Follow the link above to learn more, or read our full review here.
Another option: Consider starting your own real estate investment group. This is a great way to team together with other small investors, either via pooling your money together or simply by learning from eachother. According to Joseph Hogue, CFA from PeerFinance101.com, “The common bond in all real estate investing groups is that you help each other compete against the big money players to get the best returns.”

There are a couple of problems with direct investment in real estate though. It’s expensive to buy even a single property, a minimum of tens of thousands of dollars, and there’s no way most investors can build a portfolio of different property types and in different regions to protect from those risks when you have all your money in just one or two investments.

A perfect example of the Active Problem Solving + Automation concept is in my online courses I’ve created over the years, or my free webinars I’ve created more recently Each of my online courses and webinars are targeted to help people with specific problems, whether that’s in the area of affiliate marketing, podcasting, building a brand, and so forth. I am always improving upon the courses, but they are also evergreen for my audience.
In this paper, I examine the idea that the residual income model is superior to the discounted cash flow model. Using a simple numerical example, I show that in a M & M world, the two approaches to valuation are equivalent. In practice, the choice between the two valuation methods will be determined by the ease with which the relevant information is available.
Another way for generating income passively online is to create digital-only products through Etsy, which is by far one of the largest resources for selling arts, crafts and other collectibles online. What type of digital-only products could you sell on Etsy? Think about printable framed graphics for nurseries or motivational pictures for home offices.
That’s a nice read! I love your many tangible ways mentioned to make passive income unlike certain people trying to recruit others by mentioning network marketing and trying to get them to join up and sell products like Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, Cutco or 5Linx. People get sucked into wealth and profits and become influenced joiners from the use pressure tactics.
5) Make sure you are properly diversified. Capital preservation is underrated. We saw a lost decade for tech stocks between 2000 – 2010 after the first dotcom burst. It actually took 13 years for NASDAQ investors to get back to even. Investors in the Borsa Istanbul Turkey stock market index just gave up 10 years worth of gains after they saw a plunge in their currency, partially due to increased tariffs by the US and no-confidence in the government. Your passive income needs to be properly diversified in order to take the hits.
How to Monetize: Affiliate marketing works well when you discuss products on your blog. For our fish tank blog, we would link to all the things you need to buy for an aquarium and then when people click on that link and buy that item (and other items they purchase with it with some exceptions) you get a percentage of the purchase. Amazon Associates is the best-known affiliate marketing program, but there are others like Impact Radius, ShareASale, Commission Junction, ClickBank and Rakuten too.
That strategy seems waaaayyyy less risky than actively picking stocks of supposedly “reliable” stocks that issue dividends, which could be cut at any time due to shifting industry trends and company performance. Dividend investing feels like an overly complex old-school way of investing that doesn’t have a very strong intellectual basis compared to index investing.
Those who can reap the benefits of residual income have typically put in an immense amount of effort and time in the beginning to be able to enjoy the rewards later on. Residual income, therefore, does not result in instant gratification. Those interested in earning residual income must have a lot of patience and determination to work as hard as necessary to achieve their ultimate goals of a long-standing income stream.

In the summer of 2017, I first reinvested $250,000 into a RealtyShares Domestic Equity Fund. I already had $250,000 invested with them and I liked the projects they were choosing. After spending the rest of the year making low ball offers on SF real estate and losing, I invested another $300,000 in the fund in December 2017. Given 100% of my real estate crowdfunding are equity investments, there is no set monthly dividend. Each of the 12 investments in the fund have different timetables and objectives. I’m simply estimating that I’ll earn $9,600 for the year.

I’ve now only got a SF rental condo and a Lake Tahoe vacation rental in my real estate rental portfolio. Although I miss my old house, I certainly don’t miss paying $23,000 a year in property taxes, another mortgage, dealing with leaks and managing terrible tenants. I drove by the other day and couldn’t believe how much noisier and busier the street was than where I currently live. I wouldn’t be comfortable raising my son there.
The sky is the limit but some alternative income ideas are better than others. Stanley and Danko in The Millionaire Next Door, are quick to point out that millionaires allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. That means that a millionaire is much more likely to spend Saturday mornings checking on his rental property rather than cruising garage sales looking to add to his garden gnome collection. Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame likes to emphasize the benefits of a passive income. The books aren’t exactly a prescription for wealth, but he makes two excellent points. The first is that a stream of income that provides money when you’re sleeping is preferable to one that requires you to work. The second is that passive income often enjoys much better tax treatment than the income from your professional work. Here are some income streams that are fairly common among physicians:
The best resource for publishing your ebook would be through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program. Clearly, Amazon is the leader when it comes to digital book sales. However, be sure that you do the proper research before trying to publish an ebook and ensure that your topic has a big audience, but that it’s not too big. You don’t want to get lost in the fray.
I guess I just don’t understand why the specific importance of focusing on “dividends” instead of focusing on the total return of your investment, including stock appreciation. I don’t really care if a company decides to issue a dividend or not; presumably, if they don’t issue a dividend, then they’re doing other things to increase the value of the company, which will be reflected in the stock price of the company. As an investor, I can make money by selling a percentage of my holdings or collecting dividends, and I don’t really care how that’s divided up – it’s an artificial distinction.
We’ve discussed how to get started building passive income for financial freedom in a previous post. Now I’d like to rank the various passive income streams based on risk, return, and feasibility. The rankings are somewhat subjective, but they are born from my own real life experiences attempting to generate multiple types of passive income sources over the past 16 years.
The Lake Tahoe property continues to be 100% managed by a property management company. It feels amazing not to have to do anything. I can’t wait to bring up my boy this coming winter to play in the snow! I could go up this winter, but I want him to be able to walk and run comfortably before he goes. I’ve been dreaming of this moment for over 10 years now. The income from the property is highly dependent on how much it snows. Summer income is always very strong.

There’s a second downside to this model. Although I’ve done advertising and sponsorships in the past, and have made hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so, the truth is it takes a lot of time for this business model to start to generate income for you, because you need to build that audience first. In addition, what happens when you build your audience on a platform that ends up changing its algorithm, affecting how often you actually get seen by the audience you’ve built?

Many bloggers and social media influencers build significant residual income through affiliate partnerships. If a blogger promotes or mentions a product on their site, and readers purchase the product through the link provided, the blogger earns a percentage of the revenue. The same goes for social media influencers. If someone promotes a product on Instagram and their followers purchase it through their link, the Instagrammer would receive a portion of that revenue.